MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

9/19 No excuses

Bobby Scales is a good second baseman. But he won’t use his limited playing time this year in the outfield as an excuse for what happened Saturday vs. the Cardinals.

“That’s not an excuse,” Scales said. “This is my first time in the big leagues, everybody knows the story. I played enough outfield, particularly left field, in my career to not make the mistakes I’ve made the last two days. It’s unacceptable, there’s no excuse for it and I just have to play better.”

Lou Piniella said he felt Scales may be trying too hard.

“The one last night [on Mark DeRosa’s triple], I didn’t break down soon enough,” Scales said. “Today, I guess my attempt to break down soon enough wasn’t soon enough [on Chris Carpenter’s ball]. That ball checked and with a right-handed hitter, he’s out in front of it. You figure that ball is going to hit and spin toward the wall. I guess I gauged my speed to play the ball in that manner. The ball just checked and got past me.

“Fortunately, it didn’t end up hurting us but it didn’t look good,” Scales said. “It’s poor outfield defense. regardless of where we’re playing — whetether it’s Triple-A or here. I’ve had both of those balls enough times to know better. I’m better than that and I expect more than that. If they didn’t feel I could play those balls and play left field properly, I wouldn’t have been called up after the season.”

– Carrie Muskat

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1 Comment

Why is Scales in the outfield and Baker at second when Baker is so brutal as a middle infielder? Cubs fans are getting sick of Baker, who claims to be versatile, but who only wants to play second base, where he is a liability.

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